Catholic News

• Spread the doctrinal, spiritual heritage of St. Augustine: papal encouragement to Augustinians (Order of St. Augustine)
  The Order of St. Augustine has offered additional details about Pope Leo’s surprise May 13 visit to the order’s general curia. The Pontiff “encouraged those present to persevere in spreading the wonderful doctrinal and spiritual heritage of St. Augustine,” the order stated. Pope Leo “recalled how he still holds dear some words that Pope Benedict XVI addressed to him in the Vatican Gardens ... On that occasion, Benedict XVI passionately encouraged the Augustinians to study, deepen, and spread the thought of St. Augustine.” The order also stated that Cardinal Robert Prevost, while prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops (2023-25), regularly prayed Lauds, celebrated Mass, and had lunch with his Augustinian confrères. He “left this house wearing the Augustinian habit and the cardinal red, only to return exactly one week later dressed entirely in white.”
• Cardinal Parolin speaks on peace talks, papal trip to Nicea (Vatican News)
  Speaking to reporters on May 15, Cardinal Pietro Parolin voiced the hope that peace talks in Turkey would bring an end to the war in Ukraine, and his expectation that Pope Leo will travel to Turkey later this year for an ecumenical commemoration of the Council of Nicea. Regarding the Ukraine talks, the Vatican Secretary of State said that the prospect of a “direct meeting” between warring parties is encouraging. He said, however, that it would be “premature” to discuss a visit by Pope Leo to Ukraine. Asked about possible papal trips, the cardinal said that a trip to Nicea would be a likely possibility. “It was definitely planned that Pope Francis would go,” he said. “I imagine Pope Leo will follow the same path.”
• Pope lauds 'sense of mystery' in Eastern Catholic liturgy (Vatican Press Office)
  “The Church needs you,” Pope Leo XIV said to May 14 audience of participants in the Jubilee of the Eastern Catholic churches. “I am happy to be with you and to devote one of the first audiences of my pontificate to the Eastern faithful,” the Pope said. He spoke of “your glorious history and the bitter sufferings that many of your communities have endured or continue to endure.” More specifically, the Pope spoke about the beauty of the liturgy celebrated in the Eastern churches. “We have great need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies,” he said. Taking note of the conflicts that threaten Christians in many of the Eastern churches, the Pope said: “The Church will never tire of repeating: let weapons be silenced.” He paid tribute to those who search for peace, and also to “those Christians—Eastern and Latin alike—who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them.” Pope Leo recalled the strong stand that his namesake, Leo XIII, had taken in support of the Eastern Catholic churches. He cited with approval the words of Leo XIII that “preserving the Eastern rites is more important than is generally realized,” and that Latin clerics who seek to entice Catholics away from the Eastern churches should be “dismissed and removed from office.”
• Vatican prefect encourages Eastern Catholics to evangelize, hopes they can remain in native lands (Vatican News)
  During the Jubilee of the Eastern Churches, Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti encouraged Eastern Catholics to be missionaries. “God is providing a new opportunity for evangelization,” he said at a Divine Liturgy in the East Syriac rite. “You are the missionaries today; continue in your traditions according to your cultures.” At Vespers in the West Syriac rite, Cardinal Gugerotti spoke of “the commitment of the dicastery, which is at the service of the Holy Father, to ensure that these people can remain and flourish in their own land.” “How long can the respective ecclesial traditions,” the prelate asked, “endure abroad?”
• Starvation in Gaza is unacceptable, Jerusalem Patriarch says (Our Sunday Visitor)
  At a press conference in Jerusalem, the Latin Patriarch said that the situation in Gaza is “inconceivable” and “not acceptable.” “Starvation is not solving the situation, it is only making it worse,” said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM. “This is not acceptable. It is no way to resolve a conflict, it is only creating hate.” The Israeli government announced in March that it was cutting off humanitarian aid to Gaza. UN officials warned earlier this week that 500,000 residents face the prospect of starvation.
• European, African bishops join to question European priorities (COMECE)
  In a joint statement, the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) have criticized European attitudes toward Africa. “We have witnessed a profound shift in European priorities—away from solidarity with the most fragile regions and communities, and from development cooperation aimed at eradicating poverty and hunger, towards a more narrowly defined set of geopolitical and economic interests,” the two episcopal conferences lament. “We are particularly disturbed by growing use of African territory as a site for Europe’s resource needs and climate ambitions.” “Africa does not need charity, nor does it need to be a battleground for external interests,” COMECE and SECAM insist. “What it needs is justice. What it needs is a partnership grounded in mutual respect, environmental stewardship, and the centrality of human dignity.”
• Kennedy orders review of abortion pill effects (CatholicVote)
  Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has announced a call for a thorough review of the safety considerations involving the abortion drug mifepristone, citing the “alarming” results of a new study, based on review of 800,000 cases, showing that over 10% of the women who used the drug suffered severe complications.
• Help youth fight loneliness, relativism, Pope urges teaching brothers (Vatican Press Office)
  “Your altar is your classroom,” Pope Leo XIV told a group of De La Salle brothers, with whom he met in a private audience on May 15. The Pope remarked to the members of the teaching order that young people are always “a volcano of life, energy, sentiments, and ideas.” But they also need help, he said, to overcome obstacles to their development: Think of the isolation caused by rampant relational models increasingly marked by superficiality, individualism and emotional instability; the spread of patterns of thought weakened by relativism; and the prevalence of rhythms and lifestyles in which there is not enough room for listening, reflection and dialogue, at school, in the family, and sometimes among peers themselves, with consequent loneliness.
• Opus Dei leader meets with Pope Leo (Opus Dei)
  Pope Leo received Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz Braña, moderator of Opus Dei, in a May 14 audience. “It was a brief meeting in which the Pope expressed his closeness and affection,” Opus Dei said in a statement. “Among other topics, the Holy Father asked about the current study of the Statutes of the Prelature and listened with great interest to the explanations given to him.” The statutes of Opus Dei had been slated for revision, on orders from Pope Francis. But the final approval of the proposed revisions had been postponed with the death of the Pontiff. In a 2022 motu proprio, Pope Francis called upon Opus Dei to revise its statutes in light of Praedicate Evangelium, his apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia.
• Leo XIV launches Instagram account, inherits @Pontifex on X (Aleteia)
  The Dicastery for Communication has announced that Pope Leo XIV has established an Instagram account (@pontifex). His predecessor’s Instagram account was @franciscus. Pope Leo has begun to tweet at the X account @Pontifex, launched by Pope Benedict in 2012 and continued by Pope Francis. In his first tweet, Pope Leo said: Peace be with you all! This is the first greeting spoken by the Risen Christ, the Good Shepherd. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, and among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world.
• Texas bishop expects attack on Church's tax exemption (National Catholic Reporter)
  Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, who has been a leading critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policy, has said that he expects political retaliation. “I do expect—you can mark my words—that we’re going to see a challenge to our tax-exempt status if we continue to speak on this issue or anything else that is contrary to actions of this administration,” the bishop told an audience in Chicago.
• US Catholic population shifting to West and South (NBC)
  Census figures show the Catholic population decreasing in the states of the Northeast and Midwest, the traditional bastions of Catholicism, but growing in the South and West. In Florida and in Arizona, the Catholic population grew by over 5% between 2010 and 2020; in both states, Catholics now account for roughly 20% of the population. In Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, over the same period, the Catholic population dropped by approximately 10%. The census figures show a sharp rise in the proportion of Hispanics among American Catholics: from 29% in 2007 to 36% at the end of 2024.
• Cardinal Müller: Pope Leo can ease divisions within Church (AP)
  In an interview with AP, Cardinal Gerhard Müller voiced his confidence that Pope Leo heal divisions among the Catholic faithful. Although there are always tensions within the Church, the German cardinal said, the new Pope could address unnecessary conflicts. He said: “I am convinced that he will overcome these superfluous tensions, damaging for the Church.” One practical step to relieve tensions, Cardinal Müller said, would be to allow greater freedom for the Traditional Latin liturgy. On that issue, he said, Pope Leo “is able to speak with people and to find a very good solution.”
• Can an American Pope vote? Must he pay taxes? (Pillar)
  Writing for The Pillar, Michelle La Rosa explores questions that arise from the fact that Pope Leo XIV is an American citizen. The Pontiff has dual citizenship, being also a citizen of Peru. Unless he chooses to renounce his US citizenship, his new role as head of the Vatican city-state would force the US State Department to review his status. But the State Department would not comment on his case. As long as Pope Leo remains a citizen, and keeps the legal address that he currently maintains in Illinois, he will be eligible to vote. He will also be subject to income tax—although it is not clear what financial compensation, if any, the Roman Pontiff receives.
• Vance, Rubio will head US delegation to Pope's installation (NBC)
  Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will head a US delegation to the installation of Pope Leo, the White House has announced. The Mass celebrating the formal installation of the first American Pontiff will be on Sunday, May 19.
• Filipino bishops rap election irregularities (Crux)
  The Catholic bishops of the Philippines have spoken out against corrupt practices in the country’s midterm elections and urged reforms to strengthen democracy. “The people have spoken, but it was not a perfect discourse, said Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan, “Money tainted it. Blood stained it. It was blotted by lies.” Bishop Ruperto Santos of Antipolo scolded those who had obtained votes by bribery or by fraud, calling upon them to “repent and promise that this will never happen again in our lives.”
• Louisville archbishop issues new norms for posture during Mass (The Record)
  Archbishop Shelton Fabre of Louisville, Kentucky, has issued new norms for the posture of the faithful during Mass. To guard against “confusion and disunity,” the archbishop said that the congregation should kneel from the Agnus Dei until after Communion. (In many Louisville parishes it had been the common practice to remain standing.) The archbishop said that the faithful should receive Communion standing, as the “normative posture,” but no one should be denied Communion for kneeling.
• St. John Paul immediately forgave would-be assassin, Cardinal Dziwisz says (L'Osservatore Romano (Italian))
  At a special Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on the 44th anniversary of the assassination attempt against Pope St. John Paul II, Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz recalled that the Pontiff “from the beginning addressed words of forgiveness to his ‘brother,’ as he called the attacker who had wounded him.” “The enemies of Christ and the Church were trying to end the life of a pastor who, by preaching the Gospel of love and peace, was giving hope to oppressed and enslaved peoples longing for truth and freedom,” preached Cardinal Dziwisz, at the time John Paul’s secretary. “I watched over him after the operation that lasted hours, and I prayed for a miracle that would save his life, because the Church and the world needed him.” Cardinal Dziwisz also described Pope Leo’s election as “a gift of the risen Lord to his Church” and noted that the election took place on May 8, the day on which the feast of St. Stanislaus, Poland’s patron saint, is celebrated in Poland.
• Nashville diocese: Sunday Mass not required if attendance would risk safety (WSMV)
  The Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee has reported that many Catholics are concerned about the risks of attending Mass, because of the possibility of raids by federal immigration officials. The diocese has announced that no one is required to attend Sunday Mass if attendance would risk his safety.
• Volunteer force helps Vatican ward off computer hackers (Politico)
  A group of cybersecurity experts has joined the effort to protect the Vatican’s internet presence from hackers. The Vatican CyberVolunteers see themselves as “like the Swiss Guard that provides security for the Vatican—but digital,” explains the group’s founder, Joseph Shenouda. The volunteers began their work by assessing current vulnerabilities at the Vatican, which has been a prized target of hackers.
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